Post by Morec0
(( Here's Page 9, early, yes, but I don't see any of you complaining.
Page 8 ))
- Celen awoke to find herself in a cage surrounded by Naga. At first, she wondered what had happened, but then she recalled the fight on the Tiderunner. The Sea Witch and her sorceresses had been channeling a spell, Jason and Nilon had jumped overboard but she hadn’t made it in time and was caught right in the explosion.
- Except, it hadn’t been an offensive spell, no, it had been a translocation spell. She looked around, neither Jason nor Nilon were anywhere in sight, so they must have had avoided the spell. Or they’re being kept somewhere else, Celen realized. Either way, how was she going to escape?
- She began to conjure an arcane bolt and carefully aimed it at the largest of her jail keeper’s head. But for some reason she couldn’t release it, and, seconds later, it withered into air. Something – or someone – was interfering with her magic.
- “Ah, awake at last I see,” a hissing voice said from the other corner of her cage. She turned around to see an ogre-sized male Naga, armored in red and black plate mail from head to tail, standing right outside of the cage bars. “And already trying to escape. My, my, my, aren’t you the resilient one?”
- Celen tried again to conjure the magic bolt, planning to take out this Naga instead, but the Naga raised his hand and the arcane magic withered into nothing again.
- “Do try and conserve your energy,” the Naga said. “You’ll find it futile to try and escape from here.” He nodded to the Naga that had been acting as warden for Celen, “Leave us.” All of the Naga nodded and slithered off, leaving Celen alone with the large Naga. “Beautiful already,” the large Naga said, referring to Celen, “perhaps worth of a consort when transformed into one of us? Yes, I think so.”
- “Who are you?” Celen asked, “What do you want from me?”
- “Lord Zerksis Scalebender, at your service, milady,” the Naga said with a mock bow. “And it’s not what we want with you,” he continued, “but what we want with your Blood Elf friend.”
- Celen’s eyes widened.
Nilon? Did this mean they hadn’t captured him? And what about Jason?
- “Ah, so you do remember,” Lord Scalebender said, “good. I was beginning to worry that Murkdweller’s translocation spell had had some unforeseen consequences.”
- “What do you want with the Blood Elf?” Celen said, hesitant to use Nilon’s name.
- “I plan to use him to help me retrieve a very powerful artifact in the possession of his people,” Scalebender said. “An artifact called the Silzzorthess Idol, a powerful relic of the Old Gods that can be used as a conduit of their power.”
- “The Old Gods!” Celen couldn’t help herself from yelling.
- Scalebender grinned. “I see you’re well learned in… lost histories. But there is much to this chapter that you don’t know.”
- “I wouldn’t mind learning,” Celen said, trying to sound as flirtatious as she could. Maybe she could get some information out of this Lord Scalebender that she could use against him.
- The Lord Naga just grinned. “I have no doubt that you would,” he said. “But I also know what it is that you’re trying to do.”
- Celen frowned; clearly she wasn’t dealing with some simple, power-crazed Naga. Her captor was smart, and that would make it that much more difficult for her to escape.
- “Guards,” Scalebender called, and two Naga rushed to his side and kneeled. “Fetch our guest something to eat and drink, and tell Murkdweller and Bladefin to complete their preparations; they are to leave to the surface soon.”
- “Yes, Lord Scalebender,” they hissed and then slithered off.
- Scalebender turned his back on Celen and began to move away too. “Maybe, one day, I’ll tell you of the Idol’s history,” he said, “but that day is not today.” He slithered away as well, leaving Celen alone to ponder what she should do next
- …
-
We’ve been searching for Celen for three days, Nilon wrote,
and all we’ve found of her is her staff. His hand grew heavy as he tried to continue, but pressed on anyway.
We fear the worst, but still hope that she’s alive. However, Jason and I have decided to continue onto our mission goal, the citizens here have promised to keep an eye out for Celen and send her back to Stormwind if they ever find her. Nilon looked around the room to make sure he was alone before he wrote his last entry; I
pray to the Light that she’s alright. I don’t want anymore blood on my hands.
- He closed his journal and put it back in his pack. The book had washed up at Menethil Harbor shortly before he and Jason arrived and the citizen that had found it graciously returned it to Nilon. The water-proof casing that he kept it in had protected it well, but some of the pages had become waterlogged and Nilon had been forced to remove them, leaving the book with fewer pages then it originally had, but not by much.
- Nilon walked outside, the air in Menethil Harbor was salty in taste due to its closeness to the Great Sea, but it was still fresher than the air in Stormwind – especially the Dwarven District. Nilon looked around, Jason was buying fresh supplies at one of the Vendors, and by the looks of the conversation he was trying to get the supplies for cheaper than what they were worth – and not doing a good job of it.
- Nilon sighed. They had stayed here too long and had lost valuable travel time, but Nilon still refused to go on without Celen. I will not be held responsible for someone’s death, he though, not again. But what more could they do?
- Jason walked over to Nilon, a sack slung over his shoulder. “Can you believe,” he said to Nilon, “that it takes two gold coins to buy just one loaf of bread? There’s cheaper bread in Stormwind, this is ridiculous.”
- “As long as we got the supplies,” Nilon said. “The people here are starting to ask questions, most of them about our mission.”
- “And Lord Holyhammer wanted us to keep the details secret,” Jason said, nodding. “So, you think we should leave now?”
- “Yes,” Nilon said, matter-of-factly.
- “What about Celen?” the Warrior asked. Jason was just as concerned for the High Elf’s safety as Nilon was.
- The Blood Elf sighed. “The citizens have agreed to keep an eye out for her, I think that if she’s alive she’ll make her way here soon enough.”
- Jason nodded. “Alright, let’s see what ship the citizens got for us.” The two Alliance soldiers began to walk towards the docks, but Nilon stopped. There was that smell again – magic.
Naga magic!
- “Look out!” he yelled as a magical bolt struck the ground behind the Paladin and Warrior, knocking them both forward onto the ground. Dirt and smoke filled the air, and Nilon peered up through it to see Naga – lots of Naga. And, although all of them looked very intimidating, Nilon’s focus fixed on two, very large Naga, one male, one female.
- The female he recognized as Lady Murkdweller, but she now wore a layer of chain mail over her already protective scales, and now carried a large recurve bow. The male Naga wore tarnished silver plate mail that almost looked like it could have been owned by a paladin at some point, and carried two large maces – that even an orc would have difficulty holding with both hands – in a single hand each.
- “There he is!” the large male hissed. “Get him! Now!”
- Several Naga rushed towards Nilon, but the Paladin jumped to his feet and charged the Naga. With amazing speed he cut his blade into the flesh of the Naga warriors, but there were still too many of them for him to defeat alone.
- “Jason!” Nilon yelled to the Human Warrior, “I could use some help!”
- Jason got to his feet. “Be right there,” he said, grabbing his weapons off of the ground, and charged the Naga that Nilon was fighting.
- Before long, their attackers were dead. “Enough of this,” Lady Murkdweller hissed. “Bladefin,” she referred to the male Naga, “bring out the High Elf.”
-
High Elf! Nilon thought.
- Bladefin nodded and then yelled towards the sea, “Brak ut eth prinsor!”
- Slowly, a giant cage emerged from the water, carried by several burly male Naga. Inside the cage was an arcane sphere-prison, and inside the prison was a female High Elf.
- Nilon’s eyes widened as he recognized her.
Celen!
- “Surrender now, Blood Elf,” Bladefin hissed at Nilon, “and your friend’s life will be spared.”
- Nilon scowled, then raised his sword and plunged it into the ground. “Run,” he told Jason, “get out of here while you can.”
- Jason shook his head. “No, friend, whatever these Naga want with you, I’m going to help you with.” The warrior threw his sword and shield to the ground.
- “Seize them!” Bladefin ordered, and several Naga slithered up to Nilon and Jason, tying their hands together with chains.